


Defenses

by inwhatfurnace



Category: Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms, Fate/stay night (Visual Novel)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-07
Updated: 2015-11-07
Packaged: 2018-04-30 09:35:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5158886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inwhatfurnace/pseuds/inwhatfurnace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She realizes he is just like her, changed by too much magic and unbearable pain –</p>
            </blockquote>





	Defenses

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Барьеры](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9852884) by [WTFFate2017](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WTFFate2017/pseuds/WTFFate2017)



> After I finished reading through Unlimited Blade Works, all I wanted was Archer to talk with Saber and then I thought, hey, he should talk to all these other characters too… and so this incredibly self-indulgent fic was born. I was too lazy to go back through the VN and figure out times/places for each of these to take place in each route; please forgive me for any obvious plot holes and assume that all of these take place across multiple different timelines that are slightly different than the game’s three routes. (I'm also [over here](http://aetheling.tumblr.com) on tumblr!)
    
    
    I. SABER

She finds him in the storehouse, staring down at the faded magic circle that had summoned her. “I had hoped that I would have been a good enough example to deter you from pursuing the path of a Heroic Spirit.”  
“I know. Sorry, I messed up again.” Archer tries for sarcasm, or at the very least flippancy, but her eyes soften. Part of him hates it. 

“You’ve been doing your best, haven’t you?” She says simply, and that’s all it takes. There aren’t enough weapons in the world to defend him against her.  
“Saber,” he replies, helpless, and lets her cradle his jaw with her hand. Her gauntlet is cool against his skin. There’s a rush of magic, and her armor is gone, metal replaced by callused fingers. She smiles, and he realizes there is no one else who understands how the world defeated him, what it feels like to give everything and receive nothing in return.  
“I swore to be your sword,” she murmurs. “And instead, you must make your own.”

A long time ago, she pulled a sword from stone and sacrificed herself to her country.

A long time ago, she was all he ever wanted.

He hides his face in the crook of her neck – there’s nowhere else for him to go. Her hand slips from his jaw to his back, where it circles comfortingly. He feels like a scared child, running back to clutch at his mother’s dress. Has he made no progress at all?

“You knew who I was from the beginning. I think that’s cheating,” she says finally. “Did you not trust me enough to tell me who you were?”  
“I had to keep track of a lot of moving pieces, you know, so I figured the fewer people who had enough information to figure anything out, the better,” he replies. She stares up at the ceiling and says nothing. “And I thought maybe you’d tease me,” he adds, and fights a smile when he feels her chest rise with laughter.

“If I wanted to tease you, I’d get you to cook something for me.”

* * *
    
    
    II. MATOU SAKURA

When she opens her eyes, the walls are so white she can barely see.  
“We’re in the church,” a voice says, and she shields her eyes with her arm to see the back of a man in red.  
“You’re…” she mumbles, and rubs at her eyes.  
“Archer,” he supplies. “Rin’s Servant.”  
“Archer,” she echoes. Have they met before?

He turns to face her, expression stern.  
“We are now in a world where Emiya Shirou has decided your life is more valuable than the lives of others. He will be tested. The way he has lived up to now will be torn apart.”

Her feet are cold, but the rest of her is unbearably hot. Her head hurts. Her chest feels like it’s about to explode. She’s so _hungry_.

“I didn’t ask for any of this,” is her reply. “Do you think I just showed up at the Matou house and asked them to make me a monster?”  
“I’m sorry for what happened to you,” he replies. She scoffs. “I am.” He kneels next to the bed, never breaking eye contact. “But the path Emiya Shirou now walks is one that leads to nothing but ruin, and you will take him by the hand and lead him there.”

And then Archer’s hand is running through her hair, like he wasn’t even listening to his words as they came out of his mouth.  
“I am sorry,” he repeats, as he pushes her hair away from her face. “Every time, all I learn is that I was even more of an ignorant fool.”

His eyes – she knows them – she realizes he is just like her, changed by too much magic and unbearable pain –

“ _Senpai_?” She whispers, almost too afraid to say it. She can feel hot tears beginning to well in eyes. She clutches his shoulders as hard as she can, twisting red fabric between her fingers. “If it’s really you, senpai – end it all here. Please. You promised. I can’t – I _can’t_.”

She watches as his eyes widen, just barely, and then narrow. He tilts his head, like a hound dog on a hunt, and then he is gone. Kotomine walks into the room not five seconds later.

\- - -

A dream:

“Archer, _Archer_ ,” her sister is begging. Is she crying? If she has ever seen her sister cry, she cannot remember it. “Please stay. I’ll kill you if you don’t. My Archer can live without one stupid arm, can’t he?”  
“Rin,” he breathes. His voice is almost gone, but a hand comes up to push her hair away from her face.

Now, she wishes she had taken him. She should have made sure they knew whose Servant he truly was, like Saber and Berserker. She was the Grail, wasn’t she? Weren’t they all hers to command anyway? 

“Please stay with me, Archer,” her sister’s voice is so soft now. She cannot hear his reply, but her sister drops her face close to his.

Will he never be hers, past, present, or future? Does he always belong to her sister? Does she always belong to him? That simply can’t be true. And even if it is, she’ll tear everything apart and remake it so it isn’t. 

The next time she sees Emiya Shirou, she wants to rip off his arm and devour him whole.

* * *
    
    
    III. ILLYASVIEL VON EINZBERN

“You really are the most interesting servant in this War,” she smiles up at him as he takes a seat next to her on the bench. When he says nothing in return, she returns to staring out at the empty park. Life in the city seems to die earlier and earlier each day, as parents pull their children out of school and store shutters stay closed.

“I’m nothing special,” he says finally, and she laughs. She plucks a strand of hair from her head and weaves in to a bird. She lets it hop out of her hand, watches as it flutters over a nearby swing set.  
“A real brother of mine would have more confidence in himself,” she chides, grinning as his expression shifts from confused to affronted. “I’ve got you all figured out, _onii-chan_.”

There’s silence, and then a low laugh. “I thought I was pretty mysterious.”  
“You can’t fool me,” she replies, and giggles when he laughs again. She reaches up to card her fingers through his hair gently, eyes narrowing when he tenses. “And with your hair that color, we look like real siblings now.”  
He relaxes, and she smiles. 

“What happened to me, in the time you come from?” She drops her hand from his hair and watches her bird try to hop up the slide. She listens to him inhale, exhale, close enough to feel his shoulder rise and fall. “You can tell me, Archer.”

“You survived the War,” he says finally. “Taiga adopted you.”  
“I bet we had fun,” she murmurs, kicking her legs back and forth.  
“Yeah,” he agrees. “The two of together you almost drove me crazy.”  
The bird hops over to Archer’s feet and pecks the ground hopefully.

“How long did I live?”  
“Barely a year.” She pretends not to hear how his voice wavers. She reaches down and picks up the little bird, holds it gently in her hands.

“I’m jealous of you Servants,” she says. “Even if you die, you have a place to return to.” She presses her hands together, and then there’s nothing but a silver strand of hair left. She hops off the bench and straightens her hat. “I have to go now, Archer. Berserker will be awake soon.”  
“Alright,” he replies. “Do you want me to walk you home?”  
“You’re cute.” She can’t help but laugh at his offended expression. “I’ll be fine. I know the way.”

* * *
    
    
    IV. TOHSAKA RIN

“Pick one,” she tells him, her hands hidden behind her back.  
He gives her his best unimpressed look. Rin had taken her afternoon tea and then gone upstairs – to work, or so he had thought, until he heard her stomp back down the stairs. When she continues to glare at him, he waves his hand at her right side.

She raises her arm and opens her hand – her pendant dangles on its chain, hooked around her fingers.  
“This is the pendant I used to heal Emiya Shirou,” she explains, as if he didn’t know.  
“And the other?” He leans back into the couch, doing his best to appear uninterested.

Rin brings her left arm out from behind her back. Her hand opens, and there is –  
“This is also the pendant I used to heal Emiya Shirou.” She wiggles her right hand. “This is the one you ‘returned’ to me,” now she moves her left hand, “and this one is the one Emiya-kun gave me last night, right before I left his house.”

Silence.

“My pendant is one of a kind,” she elaborates. “How can I be holding two of them?” He picks at his nails. “Ignoring me won’t do you any good, Archer!”

He finally looks up. “If you’ve already figured it out, I have nothing to say.”

She sighs loudly, and then flops down onto the couch next to him, pushing his legs away with her feet. She lets the two pendants fall the floor.

“I’ve been thinking about it all day,” she murmurs. “It all makes so much sense I can’t believe I didn’t realize it earlier. Maybe I didn’t want to.”  
“Oh?”  
“Structural Grasp, Reinforcement, Projection…” she covers his face with her hands and leans forward, elbows resting on her knees. “You obviously knew Saber. He even used to be on the archery team. God, I’m an idiot.”  
“Rin,” is all he says. She presses the heels of her hands against her eyelids until she sees stars. She can’t even bring herself to mention the endless landscape littered with swords she's dreamt of for days now.  
“I thought because my timing was off I got some no-name Servant with amnesia. Instead, I called you right to me, didn’t I?”

Archer gently picks up one of the pendants and turns it over in his hands.  
“My Master summoned an exceptional Servant, if I do say so myself.”

Rin barks out a laugh.

“I’d forgotten a lot of things,” he confesses. “I kept the pendant long after I’d forgotten your name, or the way you said mine.”  
“Archer,” she says.  
“You told me you had used up all the magic in it, but I always thought…”  
“Stop it,” her voice cracks when she tries to raise it. She looks up at him with red-rimmed eyes. “What happened to you?”

He wraps his fingers around the ruby, feels it cut into his palm. “My Master doesn’t want to hear some sob story about how her Servant was a failure in life.”

She curls up next to him, her feet up on the couch and her head on his shoulder. “I wouldn’t summon a failure. So my Archer isn’t one.”  
“Alright,” he agrees. “If you insist.”

\- - -

When he opens his eyes, he doesn’t remember falling asleep. It’s dark outside, and the only light in the room comes from a small lamp in the corner.  
“Rin,” he jostles her off his shoulder, allowing himself some satisfaction as she grumbles loudly, eyes still closed. “Go to bed.”

He realizes the pendant is still in his hand as he stands up, letting Rin faceplant onto the couch. He pockets it as Rin sits up. "You’re the worst, Archer, waking up a girl from her beauty sleep.”

That one’s too easy, so he lets it slide. He follows Rin as she stumbles, sleep-drunk, down the hallway. She groggily stares up at the stairs to the second floor and sighs dramatically.

She makes her way up one stair, then two. Stops.  
“Come on, Archer. You’re keeping watch over me tonight.”  
“Oh?”  
“Get your mind out of the gutter.”

He follows her upstairs. He explains for the third time this week that no, Servants don’t have to brush their teeth. He sits at the foot of her bed and waits for morning.


End file.
